Students at Northwest and Coker elementary schools in Chatsworth, Ga., are using PresenceLearning, an online tool that delivers speech services through a video conference with an off-site therapist. Students interact with the therapist using a webcam and play digital games. Teachers and parents receive written reports on the students' progress and current goals and can watch a recording of the session afterward.

Google Hangouts offers educators various opportunities to integrate the technology into classroom lessons, writes Andrew Marcinek, an instructional technology specialist in Boston. In this blog post, Marcinek writes about a recent project in which his students presented projects over Google Hangouts -- allowing them to broadcast their work to a wider audience, encouraging more feedback.

The flipped instructional model is being incorporated into professional development for teachers, said Nicole Tucker-Smith, a former principal in Baltimore County, who described the system at the recent ASCD conference. Educators began creating LessonCasts, or teacher-created videos, with short voice recordings in which they explain a particular teaching strategy, education reporter Liana Heitin writes in this blog post. The recordings are typically accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation or a video, which teachers watch and listen to at home, Tucker-Smith said.

Eastern High School in Louisville, Ky., lightened the load of its 10th-, 11th- and 12th-grade students by issuing tablet computers loaded with textbooks and other educational tools. Social studies teacher Kristina Sauer said the 1,500 tablets help keep students engaged in school. "These are kids that will go into a workforce that expects them to be proficient with technology. These are students who will go to college and be required to do all of this online work," said school principal Lana Kaelin.

The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee -- a federal advisory panel on autism -- will send a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urging her office to take action on developing the minimum standard for insurance coverage for autism spectrum disorders. The committee contends that inconsistent standards across states can lead to some families not having access to services, such as applied behavioral analysis.

Of 256 doctors' offices in four major U.S. cities, 20% said they could not make an appointment for a patient in a wheelchair, noting in many cases an inability to assist the patient from the chair to the exam table. Researchers said doctors need to be reminded of their legal obligations for patient accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

This institute will provide special educators with the most current information on restraint and seclusion. Presenters will provide an overview of the current status of federal and state polices, discuss ethical and practice issues, propose preventative and alternative procedures and suggest policy guidelines for schools and districts. Register today!